Recent Press

Toyota is among the best-loved car brands in America, according to our analysis, joining a couple of domestics brands--Ford and Chevrolet--in a race to the top.

To compile our list of America's Best Car Brands, we looked at data from Consumer Reports that rated each brand based on safety, quality, value, performance, design/style, technology/innovation and environmental friendliness. We also considered scores from the 2010 Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index U.S. Auto Industry Study, a national benchmarking study that uses mystery shoppers to measure and compare how consumers are treated at car dealerships.

Are Starbucks baristas hired only if they love coffee, or only if they already have experience making a cappuccino? And does a Starbucks manager dread losing an employee since the departing employee?s ?tribal knowledge? will be so hard to teach to a new hire? No.

The Starbucks business model embraces the fact that baristas will come and go, by making sure the processes used to run a Starbucks are written down and are simple and easy to follow. Since making coffee is such a well-defined process, Starbucks employees are taught instead to focus first and foremost on the customer. The best Starbucks employees are therefore not the ones who make the best cappuccino. The best Starbucks employees are the friendly ones who remember repeat customers, help them have a good day, and are the reason why the customers keep coming back to pay $4 for a cup of coffee.

If car buyers want to be treated well, they should head to a Mercedes-Benz dealer. So says a survey by automotive retailing consultants, Pied Piper Management. It named Mercedes-Benz as the brand that handles customers best, followed closely by Lexus, Land Rover, Acura and Jaguar.

The survey was carried out by more than 3,600 "mystery shoppers" who visited dealerships across the United States and measured how they were treated by sales teams. They measured staff personalities in categories ranging from friendliness to high-pressure attitude, while also taking note of sales traits like discussions of financing options, introduction to sales managers and follow-up.

Perhaps the most interesting finding is that the stereotypical aggressive, pushy car salesman appears to be a dying breed. According to Pied Piper, this type cropped up just six percent of the time, far less than the opposite end of the spectrum ? an inattentive, unhelpful salesperson ? who made 18 percent of those under scrutiny. Pied Piper CEO, Fran O'Hagan, thinks the internet is behind the decline of such high-pressure selling.

"The internet has shifted the balance of power to customers who now know a lot about products and prices because of their online research," said O'Hagan. "Smart salespeople have figured out that there's still a lot for them to do that involves being helpful, but not leading customers down a road determined by the salesperson."

Mercedes Benz and other luxury automakers topped the list of the best dealership experience, according to the results of the 2010 Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index (PSI) U.S. Auto Industry Study. Though luxury brands took the top nine spots, the study showed that the domestic brands showed the most improvement in 2010, with Ford, Lincoln and Chevrolet scoring above the industry average for the first time since PSI study began four years ago.

The Pied Piper study also pointed out some interesting behavioral trends at the dealership. For example, shoppers are more likely to get an inattentive salesperson than pushy one. "The stereotypical car shopping experience of having an overbearing salesperson happened far less often (6% of the time) than the opposite: a salesperson who simply was not helpful enough and did not devote enough time and attention to the car shopper (18% of the time)," the report concluded.

As always, you get what you pay for. Ward's reports that luxury brands ranked highest in the fourth-annual Prospect Satisfaction Index, an auto-retailing survey conducted by consultancy firm Pied Piper Management. The organization hired 3,600 "mystery shoppers" to visit dealers around the U.S. and record their experiences. Mercedes-Benz topped the list, with other premium marques like Lexus, Land Rover and Acura following closely behind. Detroit improved the most, with both Ford and Chevrolet beating the average score. Overall, the industry's performance improved markedly, with 25 of 34 brands scoring higher this year than last. Good news for car buyers, but this also means six of them fared worse than in 2009. Mitsubishi came in last with Suzuki finishing one-spot higher. It's interesting how surveys like this mirror the troubles facing both companies in the U.S. Hit the link in today's show notes at AutolineDaily.com for more interesting information about the Prospect Satisfaction Index.

Pied Piper's annual Prospect Satisfaction Index ranks dealers in order of consumer satisfaction, so, logically, any automaker would want to be at the top of the list. Mercedes-Benz has taken the gold in 2010, thanks to its sterling customer satisfaction.

In what is sure to be reassuring news for the auto industry as a whole, 25 of the 34 brands scored higher compared to last year's index. During the survey, Pied Piper dispatched 3658 mystery shoppers to dealers to gather feedback for a variety of dealer-consumer criteria, mainly focusing on salesperson interaction.

Sitting atop this year's PSI is Mercedes, followed by Lexus, Land Rover, Acura, and Jaguar to round out the top five. The first mass-market brand to appear in the order is Chevrolet at tenth; Ford and Honda placed directly behind. After the industry average, just 12 brands were rated to be below average, with Mitsubishi owning the dubious honor of 34th place.

A recent dealer study conducted by Pied Piper of Monterey, California, reports that Mercedes-Benz has the most highly rated dealers in the United States according to the Prospect Satisfaction Index.

In what is sure to be reassuring news for the auto industry as a whole, 25 of the 34 brands scored higher compared to last year's index. During the survey, Pied Piper dispatched 3658 mystery shoppers to dealers to gather feedback for a variety of dealer-consumer criteria, mainly focusing on salesperson interaction.

Sitting atop this year's PSI is Mercedes, followed by Lexus, Land Rover, Acura, and Jaguar to round out the top five. The first mass-market brand to appear in the order is Chevrolet at tenth; Ford and Honda placed directly behind. After the industry average, just 12 brands were rated to be below average, with Mitsubishi owning the dubious honor of 34th place.

A study measuring how dealerships treat customers rated Mercedes-Benz highest but said Detroit's brands have showed the most improvement.

Ford, Lincoln and Chevrolet scored above the average for the first time in the four years that Piped Piper Management Co. has conducted its study. Lexus was No. 2 and Mitsubishi placed last in the survey.

Pied Piper, of Monterey, Calif., sent 3,658 mystery shoppers into dealerships to develop its Prospect Satisfaction Index.

A host of mystery shoppers sent to critique dealerships across the country gave luxury brands such as Mercedes-Benz and Lexus high marks and put Ford and Lincoln above the industry average.

Mercedes-Benz dealerships rank highest and Mitsubishi stores lowest in a new auto-retailing survey that used people posing as car shoppers to gauge and compare customer treatment.

Domestic brands improved the most, with Ford, Lincoln and Chevrolet dealerships scoring for the first time above the industry average in the fourth-annual Prospect Satisfaction Index by Pied Piper Management Co. LLC, an auto-retailing consultancy.

Meanwhile, the stereotypical pushy car salesman appears headed for extinction, survey findings seem to indicate.